THE MAFIA BOSS CAME HOME TO FIND HIS MAID DRAGGING HIS MOTHER’S EMPTY WHEELCHAIR THROUGH THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY—THEN HE NOTICED THE BLOOD SOAKING THROUGH HER WHITE SLEEVE.
“Get that filthy chair out of here before Luca sees it.”
Vanessa Bellini’s voice followed me across the marble floor.
I tightened my grip on the wheelchair and kept walking.
My left arm was hurting so badly I could barely straighten it. The white bandage beneath my sleeve had begun to turn red, and every movement sent another sharp pain through my elbow.
But I couldn't put the chair down.
Not with twenty-eight guests arriving.
Not with Vanessa watching.
And especially not after what had happened to Mrs. Moretti forty minutes earlier.
My name is Sophie Bennett.
I was twenty-nine, worked as a housemaid at Luca Moretti’s Chicago mansion, and had exactly forty-six dollars left until payday.
Losing my job wasn't an option.
So when Vanessa ordered me to remove the wheelchair from the main foyer, I obeyed.
Even though I knew I should have been upstairs.
Even though someone desperately needed me there.
Vanessa stood beneath the enormous chandelier in a red evening gown, greeting guests who had come to celebrate her engagement.
She glanced toward me.
“Honestly, Sophie. How difficult is it to move one chair?”
I tried to lift the wheelchair over the edge of the rug.
My injured arm gave way.
The wheelchair tipped sideways.
Its metal frame struck the marble with a terrible crash.
Every conversation stopped.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Oh, for God's sake.”
I bent down immediately.
“I'm sorry, ma'am.”
“Apparently, paying someone to do a simple job is asking too much.”
A few guests looked away.
I reached for the wheelchair.
Then a man's voice came from behind me.
“Leave it.”
My stomach dropped.
Luca Moretti stood at the entrance to the foyer.
Thirty-nine.
Black suit.
Dark hair.
The kind of quiet authority that made powerful men straighten their backs without realizing it.
He had returned from a business meeting nearly an hour earlier than expected.
Vanessa hurried toward him.
“Darling! I thought you weren't coming until eight.”
Luca barely acknowledged her.
His eyes were on me.
More precisely, on the blood beginning to show through my left sleeve.
“Sophie.”
I froze.
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?”
“What happened to your arm?”
Before I could answer, Vanessa laughed.
“She caught it on the garage door. I've already told her to stop making such a fuss.”
Luca looked at his fiancée.
“The garage door?”
“Yes. She's been clumsy all afternoon.”
I stared at the floor.
That was the moment Vanessa made her first mistake.
Because I hadn't been anywhere near the garage.
And Luca knew it.
He turned back toward me.
“Show me.”
“It's nothing, sir.”
“Sophie.”
I slowly pulled back my sleeve.
The bandage was soaked through in one place.
Beneath it, an ugly bruise had formed near my elbow.
Luca's expression changed.
“Who bandaged this?”
“I did.”
“Did you see a doctor?”
I shook my head.
Vanessa sighed.
“Luca, we're expecting thirty people. Can we please deal with the staff after dinner?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at the wheelchair.
Then at my injured arm.
Then back at Vanessa.
“Where's my mother?”
Vanessa's smile remained perfectly in place.
“Resting upstairs. The excitement was too much for her.”
Luca looked at me.
Something in my expression must have given me away.
“Did you take my mother upstairs?”
My throat tightened.
Vanessa answered immediately.
“Sophie was helping her earlier.”
Luca's eyes never left mine.
“That's not what I asked.”
I gripped the wheelchair handle.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then why is her chair down here?”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Because your mother is getting a new one tomorrow. I arranged everything.”
Luca finally turned toward her.
“You arranged what?”
For the first time that evening, Vanessa hesitated.
“Her rehabilitation, darling. We've discussed this.”
“No. You discussed it.”
The foyer had become painfully quiet.
Luca looked back at me.
“Where is she, Sophie?”
I wanted to answer.
God knows I did.
But Vanessa was standing three feet away, and that afternoon she had already made it very clear what would happen if I opened my mouth.
I stared at the floor.
“She's upstairs.”
Luca studied me.
Then he asked quietly, “Are you afraid of losing your job?”
My eyes filled before I could stop them.
“Yes, sir.”
“You won't.”
Vanessa gave an uncomfortable laugh.
“Luca, you're embarrassing her.”
He didn't even look at her.
“I'm going to ask you one more question, Sophie.”
My heart pounded.
“Did you hurt your arm helping my mother?”
Vanessa went completely still.
And that was when Luca knew.
He told his security chief to close the front gates.
Then he turned toward Vanessa.
“Enjoy the party.”
She stared at him.
“Where are you going?”
“To see my mother.”
I followed him upstairs.
Every step made my arm ache.
At the end of the hallway, Luca stopped outside his mother's bedroom.
He opened the door.
The bed was empty.
Her favorite blue cardigan was folded neatly across the chair beside it.
Luca turned toward me.
“Where is she?”
I couldn't speak.
He looked at my bandaged arm again.
Then he noticed something else.
A long scrape across the back of my uniform.
His voice dropped.
“Sophie. What happened this afternoon?”
My eyes finally filled.
“I tried to stop them.”
Luca didn't move.
“Stop who?”
I looked toward the staircase.
“Vanessa hired two men to take your mother away. Mrs. Moretti didn't want to go.”
His expression hardened.
“And your arm?”
I swallowed.
“She was frightened. They were trying to move her wheelchair into the service elevator. I grabbed it before the doors closed.”
“Where did they take her?”
“I managed to get her away from them. I brought her upstairs, but Vanessa came looking for us.”
Luca reached for his phone.
I caught his sleeve with my good hand.
“Please. There's something else.”
He looked at me.
“Your mother told me not to let Vanessa know where she was hiding.”
“Why?”
I shook my head.
“She said Vanessa had been coming into her room at night. She heard her talking to someone.”
Luca went absolutely still.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
He stared at me.
Then asked the question I had been dreading.
“Where did you hide my mother?”
I looked toward the far end of the hallway.
“The old sewing room.”
Luca immediately started walking.
But when we reached the room, its door stood open.
The lights were on.
The wheelchair blanket lay on the floor.
And his mother was gone.
Luca turned toward me.
Before either of us could speak, his phone rang.
It was the security chief at the front gate.
“Boss, there's a private medical transport waiting outside. Vanessa says you approved it.”
Luca's face went cold.
“I approved nothing.”
A pause.
“Sir, there's already a passenger inside.”
Luca gripped the phone.
“Is it my mother?”
The security chief hesitated.
“She's refusing to let us see her face.”
Then, from somewhere behind the security chief, a frightened elderly woman's voice came through the phone.
“Tell my son not to trust the woman in the red dress.”
Luca closed his eyes.
It was his mother's voice.
But the next thing she said made him turn and look straight at me.
“And tell Sophie I'm sorry. I should have warned her who Vanessa really is.
